


Delayed Gratification

by Patomac



Series: Writer's Month 2020 [3]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Awkward Flirting, F/M, Flirting, Long-Distance Relationship, Science Fiction, Space Pirates, Texting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-05
Updated: 2020-08-05
Packaged: 2021-03-05 19:40:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,119
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25720708
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Patomac/pseuds/Patomac
Summary: Callie taunts Bannon via encrypted net. She doesn't expect him to reply.
Relationships: OC/OC
Series: Writer's Month 2020 [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1862173
Kudos: 2
Collections: Writer's Month 2020





	Delayed Gratification

**Author's Note:**

> For Writer's Month Day 4: Long Distance Relationship

Yuribax Station B was a bustling hive of merchants and outlaws. Situated at the crossroads between three major wormholes, it saw more than its fair share of intergalactic trade, legal and otherwise. It wasn’t quite as shady as Carnin IX, but it was lightyears away from the legitimacy of ports like Hyr and Erwani.

I used the spoils from our latest job to buy ten minutes worth of transgalactic comms at a stall in the main market. The terminal was hidden behind a thick Arinstan rug.

Without a stationary net address, transgalactic communications were hard. Instead of sending a message to a private inbox, I had to upload a data packet to the public server.

Bannon didn’t know I planned on contacting him, so he didn’t know to check the server. He wouldn’t get a notification either—outlaws hiding their true identities never did.

A smile curved over my lips. I’d keep it short, then. No sense wasting energy on a shot in the dark.

_Nice seeing you on Aeron XXI. Shame your mark slipped away. Better luck next time._

_Xx Callie_

* * *

It was two complete cycles before we docked in a port with a net connection. We’d run four jobs since Yuribax. The first had gone to plan—I had three very expensive bottles of Hikan wine to prove it—but the next three had been shot all to hell.

(Literally, unfortunately—Korr had the blast wounds to prove it.)

We’d been given an entire day of leave at Ikaros to lick our proverbial wounds. I left Korr and Tiona in the station bar and made my way to another cheap net terminal, this one hidden behind a cardboard flap.

I logged onto the public boards and tapped in my search criteria. The old terminal – a relic of the space age—scanned and scanned and scanned.

And a message popped up.

_You’ll pay for that one, Starshine. Mark my words, you’ll pay._

A giddy heat curled through my chest. I tapped out a reply and hit send before I could rethink it.

_Do you promise?_

* * *

Of course, eight hours later, after I’d dragged Tiona home from the bar and stuffed her with electrolytes, I rethought it.

“What have I done?” I asked, burying my head in my hands.

Tiona patted me on the back. “You’re flirting,” she said. “It’s cute.”

“He’s going to think I want to sleep with him!”

Somehow, even flat on her back in her bunk, she managed to look down her nose at me. “Well, don’t you?”

* * *

During the next job, I did my best to distract myself. The Starlust was thoroughly busted, and I had plenty to do, but for some reason, the memory of what I sent to Bannon kept intruding at the worst times. I punctured a filter on the O2 ventilators. I switched a screw from the air system with one from the coolant drive. Worst of all, I dropped a wrench down the nav system.

Olethe lost her shit when she saw. “What have you done?”

“Sorry!” My face flushed solar radiation red. “I’ll climb down get it And then I’ll reattach all the wires. It’ll be like it never happened, I swear.”

“It had better be!” Olethe said.

She watched me like a hawk as I dropped down into the barrel of the positioning mag.

* * *

Fetching the wrench was easy. Reattaching the wires I’d had to detach to get to the wrench took me the rest of the day.

When I crawled out of the barrel, cold and sweating, Olethe was waiting on me at the top of the deck. She leaned against the guard rail, stirring a mug of her noxious coffee with a spoon.

“Something you’d like to talk about, Cal?”

I thought about lying. I really did. But Tiona knew about my shame, and shutting up was not one of her skills.

“I’m embarrassed,” I said. “I’m pretty sure that Bannon Carib is never going to speak to me again.”

Olethe’s nose creased. “You’re worried about that smuggler’s opinion of you?”

I flushed. “I don’t expect you to understand.”

She snorted. “I don’t understand your choice, but I do understand the principle. Boys. Man folk. The opposite sex.”

She waggled her eyebrows at me, and I looked away.

Olethe tilted her head. “So that’s it, is it? What’d you meet up without us knowing somehow?”

“No! We haven’t done anything! It’s just… I might have sent him a message.”

“What kind of message?” Olethe asked. “Were there pictures involved?”

I felt my face grow even hotter. The idea of sending pictures hadn’t even occurred to me. “N-no,” I stammered. “Of course not.”

Olethe hummed like she didn’t quite believe me. She took a long draught of her coffee. “Look, I’m definitely not the person who should be advising you on this. Also, I think Bannon’s jumped-up space trash, and you should set your sights way higher. But if you want it… get it. You know what I’m saying?”

I squinted at her. “Um… yes?”

Olethe clapped me on the back. “Atta girl.”

She sauntered away with her coffee. “And if you ever drop a spanner into my nav deck again, I will end you.”

* * *

We touched down on Kyrikos a half cycle later. The asteroid was buried deep in the belt, and more than a little inconvenient to use as a refueling spot, but as we’d picked up a little heat on the last run, inconvenient suited us just fine.

My palms were clammy as I made my way to the terminal hidden in the back of the station. I could practically feel my heart threatening to race away.

I paid my fair and sat down at the terminal.

The message came in with a ping.

_I absolutely promise._

The heat was back, and this time it spread all the way down to my toes. A goofy smile plastered itself across my face, and for a moment, I wished that I wasn’t a pirate. I wished I was just a girl with a stable net address, and that Bannon lived down the station rather than on a ship halfway across the galaxy.

I was so distracted by what I’d do to him if he were in front of me that I nearly missed the other half of the message.

_Is Korr putting her hat in the ring this cycle?_

My grin grew wider. There were few places in the galaxy where pirates and smugglers could plan to meet each other. The illegal boxing match on Xaxaria was one of the finest.

_She never misses it. See you there?_

* * *

It was another half cycle before I could read the reply.

_Not if I see you first._


End file.
